The letter to the church, signed by the pastor and clerk of session, said that the “financial settlement was made in part in recognition of the long-standing relationship between FPC Houston and presbytery and in support of the shared mission values that are at the heart of both organizations.”   After agreeing to pay $1-million,... Continue Reading

The requirement that the candidate be “above reproach” provides an introduction and overview of every other requirement that is to follow. Being “above reproach” cannot refer to some sort of moral perfectionism (Paul himself by his own words would be precluded), but rather the phrase refers to reputation within the community.   The Apostle Paul... Continue Reading

The Church of Scotland has become a church you don’t need to go to, with a God you don’t need to believe in and a faith you don’t need to have. The notion of online baptism (even as a ‘discussion’) is the desperate cry of a drowning church clutching at straws.   Normally as we... Continue Reading

We, the Session of First Presbyterian Church of Jackson, Mississippi, being cognizant of our duty to “do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God,” acknowledge and confess the sin of racism. In particular, we repudiate the 1954 actions of our Session affirming segregation of the races and upholding an unbiblical tradition of worship... Continue Reading

Turning your patient into a man-pleaser may require employment of what we have come to call the “rope-a-dope” technique, outlined as follows: First, make things very comfortable in the church for your patient. When he is very much pleased with himself and neither sober nor watchful, but drunk on ease and set to pastoral autopilot,... Continue Reading

“Pentecostalism – whatever else it is – is a religion of the extraordinary and the new.  Its leaders at times find the pursuit of the exciting to be exhausting.  (Interestingly, Charles Grandison Finney, the apostle of excitement, warned in his Lectures on Revival that excitement long continued would be destructive.)”   In 1926 Aimee Semple... Continue Reading

Although Laurie’s ordination has no standing, the ceremony was timed in advance of expected votes on sexuality and marriage. Votes will be held over the coming two weeks at the denomination’s Portland gathering, while LGBT activists hope to elevate the issue. The United Methodist Church has experienced increasing instances of ecclesiastical disobedience with respect to... Continue Reading

To situate church membership in our thinking as one welcome facet of our lives or a compelling option among a myriad of others, makes a mockery of the elective love of God, the redeeming work of Christ, and the gospel’s hegemonic scope. The gospel does not add the church to our priority list; it subjects... Continue Reading

“The Court’s decision could also empower other municipalities to take a closer look at tax-exempt properties in their own jurisdictions as possible cash cows. Other religious organizations in Massachusetts are monitoring the case, fearful that their own assets could be the next targets for taxation.”   Property-tax battles are rarely sexy. But a case now... Continue Reading

“It is a real pleasure as a pastor to recommend Ken Golden’s new book from Christian Focus, Presbytopia: What it means to be Presbyterian.  In this short volume, Ken provides the reader with the basics of the membership classes at his own church, an Orthodox Presbyterian congregation in Iowa.”   Church membership – that formal,... Continue Reading